This Week: Speak Out on SFPD Victim-Blaming

This week is a major opportunity to speak up about the SFPD’s traffic safety practices. The Police Commission and a Board of Supervisors committee will hold a hearing on how police investigate traffic collisions involving people walking and biking. Elsewhere, SPUR discusses the reform of CEQA and the first public meeting on the Irving Commons project will be held.

Thursday: At a SPUR lunchtime forum, city planners and sustainable planning advocates will discuss how the Sacramento Kings’ new basketball arena gave a political push that brought partial reform to the CA Environmental Quality Act, eliminating the requirement for developments in urban areas to be analyzed according to the car-centric transportation planning metric Level of Service. 12:30 p.m.

Also Thursday: At a joint hearing, the Board of Supervisors’ Neighborhood Services and Safety Committee and the Police Commission will review how SFPD investigates crashes involving people walking and biking. The hearing follows a recent spate of pedestrian crashes and repeated instances of SFPD blaming victims of traffic violence for getting hurt. Dozens of residents shared stories of anti-bike hostility from the police at an October hearing. 5 p.m.